Links related to maps and more

Thematical Maps

Historical Maps

Geography Games

Fictional States/Cities

Map Making Apps

Other personal sites

Shrines

Zamość Main Square

Zamość - my medium sized hometown

The first shrine I want to add to this site will be about my hometown and about small cities in general. Even though nowadays I live in a unimpressive suburbs of a big city in Poland, there is something special about medium or small cities that have some iconic but not widely recognizable monuments. My hometown is Zamość, a city with 60 thousands people, that consist of the ring of standard Polish city districts with commie blocks, schools, supermarkets and so on, and the central old town district that is just like an Italian renaissance city fortress. The photo above shows the heart of Zamość, the Town Hall standing next to Great Market square that is so iconic for me that every time I see this place in person, I'm just so proud of it!


SimCity4 Screenshot

SimCity4 - almost perfect classic city builder

That game is the closest thing that allowed me to make my imagination draw some well functioning cities including sprawling regions with enough precision and the interface was pleasant enough to do so. Even if the UI is a bit outdated, it absolutely has its early sim-esque charm, and the lighting, nature and buildings look gorgeous. It's not ideal though, it crashes (sometimes before I manually 'auto-save') and NAM mod with advanced transport modes was puzzling to use and many times led to game crashing (at least on my PC). I didn't play SimCity 1 and 2, but SimCity3000 was very much playable but much more limiting than the forth version.

The big part of why I want this whole Lankarta app happen is that it could possible bring new life to that game for me, as the Network Map functionality could allow to create custom non-grid like regions where cities could be linked wheather or not they stick to each other.


Photo of a lake on Poland-Lithuania borderlands

Poland-Lithuania Suwałki Gap - European borderlands on bike without a passport

Say what you want about European Union but open borders between are such a blessing as a tourist. When Schengen agreement is not suspended for some reason, you can cross borders between EU countries however you like. That's why about 2 years ago I packed my bike on a train and arrived to Suwałki, a city in north-eastern corner of Poland, about 30km from the border with Lithuania. If you're into geopolitics you may know the place called "Suwałki Gap", as some out-of-touch strategists might put it "one of the most dangerous place in Europe" but for everyone else, it's just a quaint rural area where the Slavic culture of Poland and Baltic culture of Lithuania live side by side in harmony.

click to read more...

Cycling is the excellent way to explore the region as roads there are quite empty, hills are not that steep and there is plenty of villages and lakes to stop by and rest a bit. That was my first time ever when I crossed the border by bike and that's such a great way to see in detail how the environment and infrastructure changes between countries. During my trip I visited Suwałki - major city, Wigierski National Park with beautiful Wigry lake, town of Sejny and former border control compound with nearby store that sells beverages and other specifically Lithuanian foods. Right next to a border I met a guy that just at that time, traveled from Edinburgh, Scotland, throughout the coast of Baltic Sea up to his hometown in Lithuania! Super nice to meet him, check out his other bike journeys on @justas_juozaitis Instagram as he's travelling way across the Americas!

On Lithuanian side I visited Lazdijai (Łoździeje in Polish), tiny town with a nice central square and IKI and Maxima supermarket chains (We don't have those in Poland and I like to visit regular stores in other countries, just my thing). After a break and checking-in hostel I took a short 20km spin through the fields and forests to take a look at Dusia Lake (Jezioro Duś), the third largest lake in Lithuania. Just by wondering around the wildernesses I've noticed there are a lot more abandoned buildings than on the Polish side. Lithuania is quite a bit less densely populated, but somehow attracts more storks! The next day I head back to Poland by a different, partially unpaved route to the borderline Galadusys Lake (Jezioro Galaduś), seen on the photo above. The border was so close to that lovely pier that I was able to literally swim back to Poland, but I had to go back the land for my bike. In Poland I've visited a bunch of bilingual villages with the most prominent one, Punśk (Punskas in Lithuanian) where I took a dinner break in the restaurant that serves cold soups, absolutely refreshing dish in the middle very hot summer day on a bike 💙. The municipal village of Puńsk was the first officially bilingual region in Poland I've ever visited and even though I didn't spend much time there, people really spoke in two languages! All and all I highly recommend travelling by bike through border regions of Europe as it gives great and very detailed perspective on how countries meet each other! I hope I will visit someday the rest of Lithuania, the rest of Baltic states and maybe some other border regions or even European tripoints!

Ačiū Lietuvai LTPL for a great time!


Buttons!

Buttons with links to other neocities sites as the pre social media internet tradition goes, not that many here so far :) Maybe I'll join some webring that my website can fit thematically.

doqmeat's website vari's website supercalchillzone website

My general interests

Section constantly work in progress, too much stuff. In general, if something is closely related to computers and/or maps, I'm in!

Lists of stuff that I like or watched

Click one of the button to see the content.
Music

Have you ever seen those youtube videos with some DJs in the yellow tiled room and caption "I listen to all genres"? Yeah that's my music taste. Also, a lot of silly stuff and I can't play any instruments, even Guitar Hero.

Here's the list of a bunch of my most defining favourite songs (artists with multiple favourite songs are in bold). This list will never be complete.

  • Radiohead - Just
  • Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Soulwax Remix)
  • Cut Copy - Take Me Over (Mylo Remix)
  • Billie Eilish - Ocean Eyes
  • Joji - Glimpse Of Us
  • Stromae - Papaoutai

I used to dislike songs in my native languages (Polish), I found the lyrics of many popular songs to be corny or too stupid. Songs in English are often excessively silly, but when it's not your native language, the feeling is not striking. Nowadays I appreciate Polish songs way more as the lyrics even when corny, more often hits home as an adult and my better understanding of English uncovers the silliness of some songs that I enjoy musically.

  • Krzystof Krawczyk & Edyta Bartosiewicz - Trudno Tak
  • Zbigniew Wodecki - Lubie Wracać Tam Gdzie Byłem
  • O.N.A. - Kiedy powiem sobie dość
  • Gedz - Chaos (Prod. Grrracz)
  • Mata - Szafir
  • Taco Hemingway & Otsochodzi - Nowy Kolor
  • Abradab - Miasti Jest Nasze
Books

The ratio of words that I've read in books to the words in all articles/mews/websites/tutorials/wikis is about 1:100 and that's not great, but at least it's something. Here's a bunch of books that I actually remember:

  • His Master's Voice - Stanisław Lem
  • The Star Diaries - Stanisław Lem
  • Tales of Pirx the Pilot - Stanisław Lem
  • The Doll - Bolesław Prus
  • The Spring to Come - Stanisław Żeromski
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
  • Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
  • Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
  • The Plague - Albert Camus
  • Ninety Eighty-Four - George Orwell
  • Animal Farm - George Orwell
  • Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
  • God Is Not Great - Richard Dawkins
  • The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice - Christopher Hitchens
  • The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind - Gustave Le Bon

So yeah, some Polish required readings, very basic political novels and a bit of Lem's sci-fi. Oh and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" thanks to PewDiePie's recommendation 👍

Games

I'm not an avid gamer but there were a couple of games that I played for hours and hours

  • SimCity 3000 and 4 Deluxe
  • The Sims 1 and 2
  • The Crew - you know, the one that got shut down by Ubisoft
  • Black - FPS on PS2
  • Just Cause 2
  • Crazy Taxi - game was wild and the map was so awesome! I remember that game now as Tim Walz was playing the game with AOC lol
  • Need For Speed Carbon, Porsche Unleashed (free demo version, no money for games)
  • Test Drive 6
  • Forza Horizon 4 - briefly as it was free on Xbox windows app
  • Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Java version on phones and most notably San Andreas
  • Euro Truck Simulator 2
  • 18 Wheels of Steel
  • Michael Jackson Game - yup it was a thing, small platform type game
  • Deluxe Ski Jump
  • Prince of Persia first ever version
  • Alex the Alligator - that 8-bit lacoste game is hypnotizing
  • Mario - on Windows 95, don't remember the version
Youtubers

YouTube was for many years and still is my main source of conveniently delivered knowledge and entertainment, I'm getting olldscool as I refuse to use tiktok for that. I used to follow some more famous American youtubers and watched closely what's going on in Polish youtube. Many of them become pretty uniteresting after many years, even tho their classic content is golden.

Long and forever unfinished list of great youtube channels:
Links, categories and descriptions are in progress, or not, I'm too lazy

  • Jay Foreman - London Unfinished and Map Men is pure british gold
  • Tom Scott
  • Geography Now
  • Technology Connections
  • 8-bit Guy
  • Veronica Explains
  • Asianometry
  • Fireship
  • Some More News
  • Kraut
  • Innuendo Studios
  • Adam Something
  • Gattsu and Geopold
  • Not Just Bikes
  • RM Transit
  • Drew Gooden
  • Big Car
  • John Oliver - for me, he's a youtuber, not a HBO show host
  • Leeja Miller
  • David Pakman Show
  • The Onion News - owners of the Infowars
Cozy series
  • The Office (US and GB) - US was the soulhealer during covid, UK version cringe is way more boring but hits much harder
  • Parks and Recreation (US) - watched right after The Office US, Pawnee makes any day better
  • Trailer Park Boys (CA) - except the episode with Jimmy Kimmel, what was that?
  • Keeping Up Appearances (GB) - watched repeatedly from free DVDs from TV magazine
  • Mr. Bean (GB) - almost all the stuff with him is great, especially the feature films and memes
  • Top Gear (GB) - with the classic squad
  • A bunch of Disney Channel serieses including: That's So Raven, Phil of the Future, Wizards of Waverly Place, Hannah Montana, Suite Life up to Charlie, then from TV kid I became PC adult
  • A bunch ofCartoon Network serieses including: Ed, Edd, Eddy, Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpoof Girls and so on and so forth, no clue about stuff there after 2010
  • 1670 (PL) - new Polish comedy series streamed on netflix, set in times of the biggest prosperity of Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth but the characters make fun of current trends and memes. The series was described by some critic as the actual Polish 'The Office' as it also tells the story about crazy boss (nobleman of a village) and the love story of two characters that are aware to his antics. The Polish adaptation of 'The Office' also exist but it's not as successful and Poland themed as '1670'
  • Gilmore Girls (US) - haven't watched it at all, my wife did and I just vibed to the theme song
Serious serieses

I've never watched that much TV serieses or Netflix, that's why that section is preety empty and misses some key serieses that everybody watched.

  • BoJack Horseman (US) - the deepest animation I can think of
  • Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul (US)
  • Dexter (about 4 seasons) (US)
  • The Wire (first and second season) (US)
  • House of Cards (US) - the first Netflix original series I've watched, makes huge impression when you're young, get sadder and less appealing to rewatch when you get older
  • Dr House (some episodes) (US)
Fun Movies

The perpetually unfinished list of international movies that I think that are quite fun to watch, I guess I'll have to divide movies as aaction movies and comedies are mixed here
Polish films with descriptions are in progress

  • Baby Driver (2017 US)
  • Robocop 2 (1990 US)
  • Die Hard (1987 US)
  • Grimsby (2016 GB US)
  • Banlieue 13 and Banlieue 13: Ultimatum (2004 and 2009 FR)
  • The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006 US DE JP)
  • Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (2002 FR)
  • Taxi 1 and 2 (1998, 2000 FR)
  • La soupe aux choux (1981 FR) - classic Louis De Fines movie that I think about every time I eat cabbage soup
  • Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007 GB FR DE US) - that Bean movie in France
  • Bean (1997 GB US) - that Bean movie with Whistler's Mother iconic painting
  • Rat Race (2001 US CA) - that Bean movie where Bean is actually Italian
  • Rush Hour 1 and 2 (1998, 2001 US HK)
  • Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty (2003 and 2007 US)
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010 US)
  • Project X (2012 US) - that movie about a huge party caused several flashmob parties across Poland and made Facebook much more popluar here. I get bored of the song "Heads Will Roll" because of that film, as it still gets too often on my auto playlists
  • Wedding Ringer (2015 US) - one of the best movies to watch with wife
  • Placeholder for all the Monty Python movies
Mostly Serious Movies

The perpetually unfinished list of international movies that I think are at least somewhat meaningful for me, I must divide all those movies better as teenage dramas with somewhat serious topics are mixed with more mature stuff
Polish films with descriptions are in progress

  • Alla vi barn i Bullerbyn (1986 SE) - not necessary serious movie but definitely a pure nostalgia
  • Scrooge (1970 SE) - absolute classic and memorable musical
  • Jump In! (2007 US) - one of those very few Disney feature films that have somewhat meaningful story
  • Honey (2003 US) - basically the Jessica Alba movie that my sister really likes
  • Crossroads (2002 US) - basically the Britney Spears movie that my sister really likes
  • Kontrol (2003 HU) - the film that singlehandedly made me go to Budapest on my own, that dark yet absurd and hopeful climate of the underground.
  • City of God (2002 BR) - forever defined the way I look at Brazil
  • Tropa de Elite (2007 BR) - after watching 'City of God' I found this series of films about Brazilian police, now I know it stars the guy that played Pablo Escobar
  • Lord of War (2005 US FR DE ZM IT DK GB) - how Nicolas Cage and Jared Leto sell guns
  • Goodfellas (1990 US)
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014 US DE)
  • Drive (2011 US)
  • Whiplash (2014 US)
  • Logan (2017 US CA)
  • Ronin (1998 US GB FR)
  • Robocop (1987 US)
  • District 9 (2009 ZA)
  • God Bless America (2011 US)
  • Léon (1994 US FR)
  • T-34 (2018 RU) - first movie that I've watched with friends via discord
  • The Pianist (2002 FR PL GB DE)
  • Spirited Away (2001 JP)
  • Truman Show (1998 US)
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004 US)
  • Blue Lagoon (1980 US)
  • The Island (2005 US)
  • The Social Network (2010 US)
  • In Time (2011 US)
  • The Time Machine (2002 US) - that machine looks sick and the scope of the story is epic
  • Terminator 1 and 2 (1984, 1991 US) - movies about the Governor of California that tries to destroy and then save the future of Los Angeles
  • Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018 US) - watched just recently, fits perfectly to the current situation in the US